Resilient connections are universally employed in vehicles of the type described to minimize vibration and shock loads on the goods or persons carried by such vehicles. Thus, springs or other flexible supports such as shock absorbers are conventionally interposed between the chassis and the wheels of a vehicle, and between the chassis and payload supporting means mounted on the chassis. The spring constant of each of these resilient connections is selected by the designer to optimize the ride for a person or payload carried by the vehicle.
In their simplest form, these resilient connections have functional spring constants, which is the term used hereinafter to describe the operation of a resilient member in which the force exerted thereby is proportional to its deflection, and are not affected by outside agencies. Judicious selection of resilient members and their configuration permits designers to achieve what many considered to be optimally smooth rides for passengers in automobiles, for example, under given constraints of wheel-base size, total mass, types of wheels and tires, etc.
More sophisticated resilient connections used on vehicles of the type described permit the spring constants to be modified dynamically in ways that enhance their riding characteristics of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,124,368 and 3,881,736 are examples of the last mentioned resilient connections wherein the suspension system is modified electrically. While providing ride smoothing results, the current reduction in total mass of the vehicle for fuel economy purposes has resulted in vehicles whose riding quality is diminished as compared to larger, heavier and less fuel efficient vehicles. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved vehicle suspension system which does not suffer from the deficiencies of the prior art as described above.